Interview_with_CEO_of_Topplants_Poland

Last month we interviewed Mr. Stefan Wiśniewski, owner of Topplants, a selling and building company for greenhouses in Poland. In this interview Mr. Wiśniewski spoke about the business going on in Poland.

How long are you active in selling and building greenhouses?
Top Plants Poland started at the end of the last century in 1992, almost prehistorical. The corporation with Olsthoorn started in 1995. That was an important step for us. From that moment we could professionally business in selling and building greenhouses.

Is horticulture in your country developing and growing?
Every year we build new surfaces, so yes, it’s developing and growing. Likewise in The Netherlands, in Poland there will be less growers, but with bigger nurseries, so the surface per building project is rising up. Our building rates are like shares, we experience some fluctuation, but in general we are far from complaining. The quality of building is developing and in Poland new times ahead of nurseries deciding to replace old greenhouses for newer ones or modernize the existing greenhouse, better equipped to save the exploitation costs.

What kind of cultures you see the most in your country?
The biggest part of glasshouse are for vegetables – mostly tomatoes, some less for cucumbers and small surface for the rest like salad or herbs, also some strawberry; the pepper production is only in a plastic tunnels. The rest of glasshouse are for flowers like rose, tulip, anthurium, Phalaenopsis, alstroemeria, gerbera, freesia etc.

What is the size of the horti market and how many acres were built every year?
That’s not easy answer because many publications and statistics give different quantities, but we can count around 3.200 hectares – approx. a half of this surface for glasshouses. 50 hectare were built every year, sometimes it happened some less, but we had also a years with more than 100 hectares per year.

To which country Poland have the most export in horticulture products?
Poland exports to East countries – the biggest but unstable market is Russia, quite a lot to Czech Rep., Slovakia. West European countries Poland focus on are Germany and UK and during the summer also to Spain.

Finally, what are your business goals for the future?
To stay the biggest and best quality second hand supplier in Poland and to make our nurseries suitable for modern future. With Olsthoorn on our side we are perfectly capable of the guarantee of stability, quality and durability.